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I’m on Windows 7 Pro x64 and I’ve downloaded a file using Firefox and it’s named guerriére | warrior.PNG with a pipe character (|) in file name and I can’t find how to delete or rename it.

Running fsutil 8dot3name query K: shows; K: is a USB NTFS drive:

The volume state for Disable8dot3 is 0 (8dot3 name creation is enabled). The registry state of NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation is 0 (Enable 8dot3 name creation on all volumes). Based on the above two settings, 8dot3 name creation is enabled on K:.

But dir /x command doesn’t show short file names.

I've tried to use unlocker and DelinvFile.

Trying to delete it or the folder I receive response :

The file name you specified is not valid or too long. Specify a different file name.

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Easiest is to just boot up a Linux system with NTFS-3G – for example, an Ubuntu live CD – and use it to rename the file. (When using a terminal, the filename with pipe character needs to be quoted.)

You might also be able to use WSL to do this.

(Pipe characters are valid in NTFS overall, they're just not valid in Windows. Of course the question is, how did Firefox manage to sneak this filename through the normal Windows APIs...)

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